October 11, 2010

The ugly political game of power is being played in Karnataka. It is not the only legislature to go that deep in political morass; even India’s Parliament has done that earlier. In most cases, such situations come when the ruling formation – either one party or a coalition – breaks and a number of legislators defect to form or support an opposition formation. In such cases, especially when the ruling formation is not sure of mustering majority support, Speaker’s role becomes important. Speakers have in the past accused of siding with the ruling side and the present Speaker too is not likely to behave too clean.

Now, what takes the politics to even deeper levels is the role played by the Governor. When he becomes a party to the game and tries to influence the outcome, he lowers the dignity of his position and is RIGHTLY blamed for being partisan. I am neither in favour of Yeddy or Kumaraswami but I am against Bhardwaj, the Governor. He has written to Speaker that he should not disqualify the defecting MLAs and that he will not accept the results of floor test if they are qualified. He is imposing his will on the legislature – a role he says he has been given by the Constitution [that could be right; Bhardwaj is a former Law Minister] but a role he is not supposed to play. To accept or not accept would come later, and there too a Governor is expected to be very impartial, but by dictating what the Speaker should do and deciding beforehand what he himself would do, Bhardwaj has unnecessarily dragged the Governor’s high office to the murky waters of power politics.

Not now, but immediately after the power-play, Bhardwaj must be made to go. Hope, Congress won’t mind that, since the Governor will have by then done the damage that Congress would want him to do.